No one ever said motherhood was easy. Baking bread, that's easy. Software engineering, that's easy. Motherhood?....well, until bread and software start giving hugs and giggles, I guess I'll just have to stick it out...

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

I had the most frustrating and confusing phone call this afternoon with someone that I believe to be the assistant to an investment rep. I don' t honestly know if this lady is merely a secretary, or is actually a rep herself, but she wasn't even the one I wanted to talk to. And she was adament about several things that were just dead wrong.

I am now working for my third employer since college. With the first, I had a 401k plan. With the second, I had a Simple IRA, managed by the investment firm in question. The newest has a 401k-like retirement plan (they never call it a 401k, but it seems to have the same characteristics). I like my Simple IRA--it is invested in a nice mix of stocks and mutual funds and has really performed well--I think it's gained 25-40% in value since it was started in 2002. Not too shabby. The company that I worked for at the time was really small, and the plan was set up by a investment rep that my boss knew personally. The rep is quite good, with a personality that I find easy to work with. He has made several very good suggestions for investments, and my contributions have really grown.

Now that I am up to three different retirement plans, I think it's time to consolidate. I'm not about to remove money from my current 401k, since it's still being actively contributed to by me and my employer. I like my Simple IRA. That makes the logical target my original 401k. It was always kind of a blah performer, and has changed companies a couple of times since I left. Besides, I have a limited selection of investments and can't contribute anything else to it. I had asked my investment rep several months ago whether I could roll the old 401k into the Simple. I'm pretty sure he said that I could (though I could never go the other way).

So, I finally remember to bring my account information for both accounts with me, and try to call my investment rep. A lady, his assistant, answers the phone. I tried to explain that I was wanting to roll a 401k into a Simple that they manage, expecting that either she would 1. Take a message or 2. ask me where to mail/fax the appropriate form. Instead, she chose option 3. offer her own advice about what was and was not possible. (I will admit that I'm horrible on the phone...I tend to get all toungue tied even on the most basic of phone calls. So, it is possible that she did not quite understand what I was really after).

She started by telling me that what I was asking was not possible, and that the only thing that I could do with the Simple IRA was to roll it into a traditional IRA. I replied with something like "Maybe I misunderstood when I had asked in the past. Ok, I guess I'll have to figure out what the pros and cons of a Traditional IRA are...". At this point, she reiterated, more adamantly, that that was my *only* option. (As if leaving the money where it was weren't an option? ).

Next I was told that I would have to contact my former employers to get rollover forms. I repeated that *her office* handles the account that I'm trying to rollover, that that was indeed the purpose of my phone call. She repeated that I had to call my former employer. Great, I thought, if I call up my old boss, he would tell me I had to call my investment rep (back to square 1).

At this point, I should merely have asked her to leave a message for the rep. Instead, I was carried away by the whole mess, and I continued the battle by mentioning that I have a current 401k that I might consider rolling the money into instead, if I decided that the Traditional IRA wasn't what I wanted. I think I was expecting that she would offer more information about the stupid thing, or that she would have the rep go over it with me--she did not however take my hint, but instead informed me that I could not roll anything into the 401k either. Now I was very confused and exceedingly annoyed, because I've been told multiple times that I could roll 401ks into new employer's plans. At this point I said I'd get back to them.

I walked to a computer with internet access, pulled up my current retirement plan, and was looking at the form that would allow me to rollover a previous 401k when I vented to my husband over instant messenger about the whole stupid conversation.

Its a good thing for them that I am already a customer, and have been quite happy with my service thus far, otherwise they would have lost me. I'm not exactly a billionaire that's going to pay the rent on their office with the commissions on my own transactions, but I have a good amount of money invested with them, and will probably be setting up educational and other accounts with them as time goes on. After a cooling off period of a couple of hours, I called back and asked to speak directly to the rep. When I was told that he was out for the day, I left my name and phone number and asked that he call in the next couple of days. "Is there anything I can help you with?", the lady asked. Um, no. I don't think you can.

Monday, February 27, 2006

This weekend there was a huge Mardi Gras celebration in St. Louis. We've never bothered to go before, since we're not really the type to enjoy a day long drunkfest. This year, we got an invitation for a pre-Mardi Gras waffle breafast from friends who live basically in walking distance to the heart of the celebration. We figured we'd go ahead, and at least let Charlotte see the parade.

She loved it. I ended up squeezing up to a front position along the parade route where she could see the floats and crazy people going by. I started by standing her up agains the barrier so she could see under the other folks' vision, but once a group of wildly-dressed percussionists came by banging on rainbow trash cans, she decided that she preferred the security of being held. I tried holding her on my shoulders so she could see over everyone's heads, but then I didn't have a hand free to block the hurtling beads that came flinging at her. So we ended up with me propping her on a hip, leaving a hand free for defense.

There was a nice little girl standing next to us named Jaime, who retrieved the beads that landed in front of us on the street, and shared them with Charlotte. Many of the adults that stood around us also shared the beads that came flying their way. We watched for about an hour before the group we were with wandered farther into Soulard towards the bars. Charlotte loved her pile of beads and refused to let me remove any of them from around her neck :) She played with her pile of necklaces all weekend--putting them on, taking them off, picking them up and shaking them, and putting them on my husband and I. I think one of her dolls may have worn some at one point.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Charlotte was in a good mood this morning. She was actually quite happy last night too, despite being home alone with me while my husband worked late. We snuggled on the couch right after we got home, and then I made dinner (well, I put a frozen pizza in the oven...ever cooked with a toddler under foot?...). After she ate, she was content to play mostly by herself. She did have some graham cracker sticks and a cut-up plum on her little table to snack on, which she kindly shared with one of her baby dolls :) She went to bed easily, and though she did wake up once around 3, it only took about 5 minutes of cuddle time before she was back out. This morning she was all smiles.

Charlotte's first tooth didn't appear till she was 14 months, and she's gotten 7 more since then (in just under 4 months). So, we've gotten used to the cranky halfing. That makes a good evening and morning all the more fun.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

This will be a good month for us financially (finally!) In yesterday's paycheck, I got a nice little bonus, and we're expecting a good sized tax refund (assuming we actually get the darned things submitted). Now we just have to resist the urge to spend it all.

There are quite a few good things to save for--time off for a possible second child within the next year or two, Charlotte's future college tuition, more of an emergency fund than we tend to keep on hand. There are some sensible things we could put the money towards that would be of good financial benefit--paying off our deck or cars, for example (luckily, we've never racked up credit card debt, so that's not an issue). And then there are the things that call to me...a new serger (to support my fabriholic tendencies), patio furniture (for that deck we're still paying off), office/craft room furniture (see "serger" above), landscaping, etc.

My husband would list things in a completely different order here. He would also probably list making an extra payment on the house before several of the other saving/debt reduction options., and possibly throw in something about another IRA. There have been a few years in the past when we've been in this kind of shape, and we always kind of let the moment fizzle and pass without either really enjoying hte money or really doing anything of great benefit, which really frustrates me. But we frequently can't agree on what to do, so we dont' really do much and then after a couple of months, we realize that there's nothing much to be done since the money sort of dissolved away as the time passed. Maybe this will be the year we figure things out and make it worth while.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Once again last night, my daughter proved just how much of a mooch she can be. I picked her up from daycare, and she devoured both a stick of string cheese and a cup of mashed sweet potatoes (we keep baby-sized portions of those in the freezer just for her). I made stir fry for dinner. Then we went to her friend Gavin's house to play ("Gavvy!"). Gavin's parents had ordered pizza, and it arrived shortly after we did. Charlotte's eyes followed the pizza box from the moment it arrived, and she was soon standing by Gavin's high chair begging for some. Lucky for her they had extra and were willing to share. She ate most of a regular-sized piece of pizza.

It's not like we don't feed her. She eats a snack in the morning before daycare, and gets breakfast, lunch, and two snacks there. She gets another snack when we get home, eats dinner, and nurses before bed. I don't know where she puts all the food. She's barely 20 pounds and about 32 inches tall, and has been running around the 10th percentile on weight and 25th on height since birth. She must have inherited her father's hollow leg, because *my* metabolism has never been quite that good.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Yet again, my daughter had a stomach bug over a 3-day weekend. Monday was President's Day, a holiday apparently celebrated by banks, the post office, and daycares (but no one else). One parent or the other was going to have to take off a day of work to hang out with Charlotte, so we decided to both take off and go visit my in-laws, who live about 6 hours away. We haven't actually been to see them since this time 2 years ago when we told them that we were expecting (and I spent that weekend puking up my guts with a bad combination of morning sickness and stomach flu).

My husband had to work late on Friday, so we didn't actually take off till Saturday after lunch. We've learned from experience that the drive is more pleasant for all involved if Charlotte sleeps as much of it as possible, so we banked on a long afternoon nap. We took her to McDonald's and fed her all the hamburger and fries that she felt like eating, and then spent the better part of an hour playing at one of the indoor playplaces--crawling through the gerbel tubes and going down slides. This is quite a workout for us as well, since she isn't quite agile enough or brave enough to do that on her own yet, so we took turns crawling around with her. We left the restaurant and buckled our complaining 18-month old into the car and headed out. About half an hour after we started, Charlie was still not asleep (despite being nearly an hour past her regular nap time), and she was fussing and complaining. Then she puked. Apparently of all the food she ate, only one french fry and part of a tomato from my salad were unworthy of digestion. The kid was quite happy to have her clothes and diaper changed in teh bathroom of the nearest gas station, while my husband mopped up the carseat.

We assumed that she just played too hard after eating, so off we went again. The rest of the journey passed without incident (though plenty of fussing when she wasn't asleep). She was happiest when holding my hand, which is quite difficult when I'm in the front seat. After we got to her grandparents' house, she brightened up quite a bit and was thrilled to try out some of my husband's old baby toys that my mother-in-law had cleaned up for her. Then she puked again. This time, most of her dinner came up--luckily missing the new carpet, area rug, and white sofa and chairs in the living room! Sunday she kept all her food down, but had several really runny diapers, and insisted on sitting on my lap for most of the day. Poor baby!

This is the second 3-day weekend that Charlotte's spent puking up her guts, and the second visit to the in-laws that some member of our little family has been sick. Boy do I hope that both of those trends end right now!

Friday, February 17, 2006

I go through phases in crafting--for a while, i'm sewing everything under the sun, then embroidering things, then painting...lately I'm on yarn. It started at Christmas when I saw a Michael's add promoting a set of 4 round looms called Knifty Knitters for $9.99. I thought they looked perfect for my 9-year old sister for a Christmas gift, since she's also a big crafter (she's dabbled in crochet and latch hook and is learning to knit). When I went to buy them, they were nicer than I expected for the price, so I came home with a set as well :) By the time we'd gotten to my Mom's for Christmas, I'd completed a Charlotte-sized hat, and a mommy-sized hat, and was working on a scarf to match my hat. My sister seemed to enjoy the looms too, and had about half of a "fun-fur" pink scarf done by the time we left.

The looms are really easy to use. Here's a link to the manufacturer's website (I have no affiliation with them..only promoting them because I like them) :Provo Craft's Knifty Knitters.I have the set of round looms. To use them, you just wrap yarn around the pegs, and pick one loop of yarn on a peg up and over the one above it. That's it.

Now I seem hooked (bad pun, I know). I also picked up a crochet sweater pattern for my daughter over Christmas, and am about 75% done with it--it's lavendar, pink, green, and white and a pattern that looks like plaid. Very cute. If I ever finish it, I'll have to post a photo. I'm being brave and knitting the ribbing with actual knitting needles--I've knitted small samples before but never an actual project, and the pattern directions call for crochet ribbing, so it will be fun to see how I do.

We're going to visit the in-laws for the weekend, and I'm planning to pack both the sweater-in-progress, and at least one of the knifty knitters. I bought a bunch of "Baby Clouds" yarn yesterday at Walmart to attempt receiving blankets. I have a couple of friends who are expecting, and if the blankets are done before the babies come, they will be gifts :) I also have 2 skeins of a pretty deep red to attempt another scarf (with the regular knitting needles maybe with a cable pattern!) and/or some mittens on the knifty knitters. Don't remind me about the afghan that I started several years ago--it needs to be assembled still (granny squares), but I never like the color combination, so I'm having trouble getting back to it....

Yikes, this new crafting obsession *is* just like my sewing one....pretty soon I'll have a chest of drawers full of yarn to match the one full of fabric.

Apparently I need some sort of proximity sensor when I'm walking through the halls at work. I'm always running into people in the intersections (well, usually they're near-misses). Either that or I just need to look where I'm going. Funny, my husband is always telling me to pay attention to where I'm going...maybe he's on to something...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Why is it that everything always happens at once? We go along for months with our schedules delightfully even, and then BAM. Not to say that I ever feel caught up on all the things I have to do (work, laundry, housekeeping, don't even mention photo albums around me...), let alone the things I'd *like* to do. But usually my stress is at a pretty even level.

My husband's birthday is on Valentine's Day, which is easy to remember, but hard to plan for. Ever try going out to eat on Valentine's Day? As long as you've got the midnight munchies, you might get a table. Several years ago, it actually fell on a Friday, which also happened to be the first Friday of Lent. There wasn't a shrimp to be found in the whole town that night--I believe we made mac and cheese at home that night after Red Lobster told us the wait was over 5 hours.

So my stress jumped a few decibels this last week. Thursday last week, we realized that we were down to 1 diaper. We normally buy them at Sam's club since they're a TON cheaper than anywhere else, but ended up settling for a quick dinner at Taco Bell and a run through the grocery store so that we could also buy milk and a few other things that we'd run out of--a trip to Sam's would have put Charlie way past her bedtime, which is never plesant. Friday I had scraped together 2 hours of flex time so that I could go shopping for a gift before picking up Charlotte. My husband is impossible to shop for, so I didn't end up really enjoying my baby-free time as much as I would have liked. Saturday morning was swimming lessons, and that afternoon we hit Sam's club for diapers. Also, my cell phone is completely dead, so we tried both Best Buy and a Sprint store to see if I could find a basic phone that would work (that's a whole other rant I believe)--both to no avail. Sunday started out with church, where I had no place to sit and ended up in the basement watching Charlotte play during hte whole service, followed by a quick lunch with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We went out to dinner that night for the birthday celebration.

Monday I tried to make things easy by heating leftovers for dinner after working a longer day, but ended up with a screaming toddler and overcooked food anyway. She wouldn't go to sleep that night either. DH had to run to the grocery store for fruit for the Valentine's party while I tried to rock the kiddo to sleep. Yesterday we attended the party, and ended up with a playdate with Gavin, a friend's son who is 12months and in Charlotte's daycare. That was fun, and Charlie went right to sleep after playing for serveral hours straight. Today after work, we have a make-up swimming session since we'll be out of town this weekend, so I pick Charlie up from daycare, feed her a snack, schlep her to the pool for a six oclock class. Wednesday's we play Dungeons and Dragons with friends, and it is actually my turn to cook, but luckily DH's willing to trade nights with me--we start at 7 and the swim class gets out at 6:45. Tomorrow we have to do laundry and pack, and we're going to be out of town to visit my in-laws for the weekend.

Maybe next weekend I'll get a chance to sit and do something I enjoy without a toddler in my lap or other people around. I enjoy friends and family, but atI'm an introvert and just need time *alone* sometimes!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Bookstores are like chocolate--they call to me. They all have that lovely papery scent, and those tall shelves covered in volumes seem to absorb the noises around me, which makes things quite peaceful. Libraries used to have the same appeal, but I have to give the books back to libraries when I'm done, which means that I don't get to fill shelves with those peace-making volumes at home. I can't leave a bookstore without buying a book, and much like chocolate, it's hard to limit myself to one.

I seem to read a variety of things, but I do fall into ruts. I'm in the middle of the Harry Potter, Robert Jordan, and George R. R. Martin series. I've made a pretty throrough sampling of Isabel Allende's work--mostly in Spanish, though the english versions seem to capture her style pretty closely. I enjoyed The Other Boelyn Girl and The Queen's Fool last fall, and now have the Wideacre trio on my shelf waiting for me, thanks to my sister-in-law. I also had picked up The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses, and have finally cracked those. I read those two books in high school, but with the new one out, I am going to attempt the entire series. I say "attempt" since at my current reading rate, Charlotte will probably be borrowing them before I'm finished. I do miss the days of finishing 2-3 books a month (the kind that are either 2-3+ inches thick, or written in another language...).

Of course, the books that I seem to read most often lately are brightly colored and printed on cardboard. Between Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton, it's a wonder I don't speak in rhymes. I can recite the entire text of "Moo, Baa, La La La", "But Not the Hippopotamus", and "The Birthday Monsters" from memory now--a handy skill when your toddler turns the pages too quickly. Charlotte seems to enojy books as much as I do, so maybe I should be buying stock in Amazon.com...

Monday, February 13, 2006

My daughter is an eater. Last night we went out to eat for my husband's birthday with his sister and brother-in-law. We went to one of the nicer steak places in town (the kind that requires reservations and where you can barely squeeze in a dinner for 2 digits) , and bravely took our 18-month-old along. She was really well behaved (thank goodness!), and I'm afraid that she quite enjoyed her fine dining experience...

To start, the restaurant is NOT known for it's bread--they provided a basket of individually wrapped crunchy "breadsticks". Luckily these bear a strong resemblance to Charlie's favorite pretzel sticks, so she was thrilled with the offering. Then the salads arrived. She had her own plate with two chunks of tomato, some fresh spinach, and a handfull of dried strawberries (like raisins only yummier)--all scavenged from the adult's salads. She dug right in, and only turned her nose up at a small bite of bleu cheese that I offered her. Then the meat arrived.

I had ordered a 16-oz New York strip and my husband the prime rib--the restaurant's signature dish. His prime rib was about the size of a chuck roast. This thing would have easily fed all five of us at the table, with leftovers (there was actually a *larger* portion on the menu....). I'm really not exaggerating here--it was a piece of meat that was plate-sized, and at least 2 inches thick. As soon as Merl's plate was put in front of him, Charlotte's eyes widened and she let out a triumphant "Ha-ha-ha" and tried to help herself to a bite. With her spoon. We couldn't cut bites fast enough of the steak and prime rib for her. She was also offered green beans and twice-baked potatoes, but really just wanted the meat. She easily ate 4 ounces all by herself. Did I mention that she is barely 20 pounds, and hovers around the 10th percentile for weight? Not for lack of trying...

Really, we're quite lucky with her. She's always been a good eater. She switched from baby food to table food at 9 months because she seemed to prefer our dinner to her own pureed one. We once tried to order her a chicken finger kids meal at Outback, and she wouldn't touch it--she wanted our steak. She also had no teeth until she was 14 months, but the kid could gum anything (including that Outback Special..). Her current favorite foods include green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, steak, fruit of any kind, and yogurt. This morning she actually threw a tantrum because I wouldn't make her oatmeal for a snack before daycare (she gets breakfast as soon as she gets there).

A couple of our friends with younger babies have occaisionally asked how much to feed them, or for suggestions as to what to try, or have stated that they didn't think their kids liked much table food. The only thing that I can tell them is to eat well in front of their kids, to offer the babies the same thing that the adults are eating, and to let them make a mess with the food (practice makes perfect even if it seems like most of their dinner hits the floor, walls and hair). Except for foods that babies are not supposed to try, Charlotte has had bites of just about everything that we eat--from lettuce to spicy chinese food to chili (she loves chili). I think the only thing left that we regularly eat that we haven't let her try is peanuts, and that one's getting harder and harder to withhold, especially since she's accidentally had both walnuts and almonds and has had no issues with either.

I do worry that if she eats this much at 18 months, that we're going to have to sell our kidneys to feed her when she's a teenager...

Thursday, February 09, 2006

If you have a weak immune system, then my daughter's daycare is NOT the place for you in February. At last count there were like 7 kids with communicable diseases just among the under-2 crowd. The kiddos are sharing strep, roto-virus (a nasty stomach bug), pneumonia and RSV at the moment. My own daughter is one of the strep throat patients, and hopefully the antibiotics we're using to treat it are helping her to fight off other ailments. I don't believe there have been any babies under age 1 in attendance all week this week. I remember last year right at this time, they were also fighting at least RSV and rotovirus, because Charlotte was out for a week with RSV, and another baby had been hospitalized with dehydration. In a place where every kid takes turns sucking on the same toys every day, it's a wonder they ever have healthy kids at all.

Makes you want to don a mask and latex gloves before entering the place, doesn't it?

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

White flower petalsdriting from the skygently, gentlylanding on the cold grounda lacy blanket on the earth

I wrote that poem in the 6th grade on a day just like today. Many people think I'm nuts, but I love this weather. It's about 35 degrees and snowing. There's no ice, no wind, just big, wet snowflakes falling in clumps from the sky. I stood for a while by the window near the entrance to my building just watching. My office has no windows, so it's quite sad to realize that I'm missing out on such a pretty sight. I'd go for a walk, but this building is not in the best neighborhood, and I just don't feel comfortable doing that. Sloshing around the parking lot would not be the same.

If the snow doesn't melt by the time I get home from work, I'm putting Charlotte's boots and snowsuit on, and taking her out to play.

Monday, February 06, 2006

I started this blog about a year ago when I found myself with slightly fewer tasks than hours in the day. I'd just been hired to a new job and was actually waiting to be placed with the group within the company that actually hired me (big companies = lots of paperwork). At the time my daughter was not quite 6 months old, and I'd been playing at being a stay-at-home-mom since she was born. She was still exclusively breastfed and I didn't have any interest in switching her to formula to make my work day more convenient. So I started my first day on the job hauling a breastpump around between orientation events, perching on the edge of a toilet at one point in order to pump. I found several forums online full of women like me who spent quality time with a breastpump for their lunch hour and breaks every day, and took a lot of comfort from the camaraderie.

I decided that it would be an interesting experiment to start a blog to journal my experiences, but that got derailed in a hurry. Shortly after I started, I got transferred to my current department, where I do not have internet access at my fingertips all day long. That's worse than stopping a caffeine addiction cold turkey, btw--this is the first job since college (mid/late 90's) where I haven't been online at work all the time.

Recently I decided that it might be an interesting experiment to try this again. So where are the original blog posts about the pumping, you might ask? I deleted them a while ago thinking that I would start over fresh. So all you get is a very abbreviated summary. I managed to pump till Charlotte's first birthday, including over a 2 day business trip out of town. She took to cow's milk and sippy cups with no problems, and transitioning her off the bottle at daycare went pretty smoothly. I think she may have been the first at our daycare to get mother's milk in a sippy cup during the transition, but they apparently don't have a lot of kids still breastfed by a year, let alone after. We're still nursing morning and night (mostly just at bedtime these days--in the AM only if she requests it). Charlotte's nearly 18 months old now, and we never had to give her formula.

If anyone else is interested, I highly recommend the PumpMoms group on yahoo, and of course, La Leche League. Both were great for moral support during the year. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, btw, and probably will at some unknown point in the future--and No, that's not an announcement of any sort :)

Sunday, February 05, 2006

For a couple of years, my husband has participated in a fantasy hockey league with a bunch of friends. I always thought it sounded kind of fun, and was always a bit annoyed that I was never invited to join (amazingly enough, most of the participants are men...go figure...). So this year, I actually mentioned it to Hubby, and I got to join. It appears that the guys weren't trying to exclude women, they were just unaware that any wanted to play. Another guy's wife is also playing, though I think this is her second time.

Of course, brilliant that I am, I decide to participate in an *online* game that requires frequent attention. Apparently it's not enough to just pick players and then sit back and wait, but you actually have to pay attention to who's injured and remove them from the roster (what's the use of this being "online", then, you might ask? beats me....). Did I mention that I don't have internet access at work, except for a few "public" computers in a hallway. Yes, I develop software, but my work doesn't lend itself to public websites, so there you are. In other words, for the first time since before college, I'm not attached to the web all day every day, so getting online to update a hockey team requires time at home. And, as I've discovered, computers and toddler's don't mix, nor can *I* play on the computer while my daughter is around--she parks herself in my lap waiting impatiently for pbskids.org to fire itself up and for Elmo to start singing on my monitor.

So, my team's been "playing" with a handful of injured players for a couple of weeks, and losing horribly for it's efforts. I finally "sold" a bunch of them in exchange for names that I don't recognize but who appear to be uninjured or have better records than many of my curren t ones. Maybe I should just rename my team the St. Louis Blues and try to sell them....Ebay here I come....

Friday, February 03, 2006

I never claimed to be on a diet. Debate all you want as to whether I need one. I've been enjoying a handful of yoga and pilates-based workout videos as my main source of exercise lately. I don't count playing with my 17-month old as exercise, no matter how much my legs hurt the next day from all the crawling around on the floor and chase games :) Last night was a 30-minute section of a Denise Austin video. She's annoying (and not as naturally blonde as she wants us to think), but the workout was good. I celebrated my 30 minutes of lunges by eating a dish of ice cream, while sitting on the couch in front of the tv.